In the first waves of Asiatic Cholera, the British medical establishment was still deeply influenced by the humoral tradition that traced back to the writings of Galen. It was believed that disease stemmed from “miasmas” of bad air [link], especially in unsanitary conditions. In the first half of the nineteenth century, British doctors accepted some of the knowledge of Indian practitioners [link] of Hindu Ayurveda or Muslim Unani. The commonly held belief was that it was the warm climate of India that exposed British soldiers to disease - an issue wealthier British colonizers avoided by sheltering in “hill stations” set on higher ground. Then, 1854, a physician named John Snow proved that cholera was transmitted through water, and with this discover, methods of responding to cholera changed drastically.
The British launched inquiries into the conditions of South Asian people on pilgrimages and ultimately classified pilgrims as a “dangerous class,” launching specific surveillance systems for pilgrims. This reveals the power of the “colonial gaze:” the ability to categorize whole practices, such as Hindu or Muslim pilgrimage, as senseless and backwards.
In the British Empire in the nineteenth century, cholera was used to drive a wedge between cultures, even as British doctors improved their understanding of disease transmission and moved to a new era of medical science. Between fear of cholera and ignorance of pilgrimage practices, the British medical establishment characterized a whole culture as filthy and insensible.
We should learn from, instead of repeating, the racist assignations of the past.
- Sagaree Jain, “Anti-Asian Racism in the 1817 Cholera Pandemic” on JSTOR Daily (Apr. 20, 2020) (link)
